Book Review: Books for Cooks 2010Books for Cooks 2010
Need help making that Black Friday shopping list? Here's a selection of great cookbook ideas with something to delight any foodie you know.
Reviewed by Kate Thornberry, Fri., Nov. 26, 2010
The Essential 'New York Times' Cookbook: Classic Recipes for A New Century
by Amanda HesserW.W. Norton & Company, 932 pp., $40
Unlike most compendium-style cookbooks, The Essential 'New York Times' Cookbook does not set out to instruct the reader on how to cook every dish or foodstuff imaginable. The focus of this book is quite different; it is a collection of the best and most beloved recipes ever published in The New York Times. Rather than looking at how we cook right now, it presents a fascinating look, in recipe form, at the history of cooking trends, styles, and techniques, spanning the last 150 years.
Author Amanda Hesser asked NYT readers to nominate recipes for inclusion, then spent a year testing the more than 400 requested recipes. In the last 50 years alone, the Times has printed recipes from such luminaries as Julia Child, Maida Heatter, Nigella Lawson, Tom Colicchio, Daniel Boulud, Jamie Oliver, Mark Bittman, and Craig Claiborne, among a host of others. After winnowing out the gems of the last 50 years, Hesser turned her attention to the Times archives to discover what forgotten culinary triumphs have been lost to the passing of time. She tested another 1,000 recipes during the next four years. The Times has been publishing since 1851, so these archives contain recipes and foodways that predate the Civil War.
Accompanying the text, Hesser has created timelines to put the recipes into historical context. The timelines include such major events as Prohibition, the invention of the refrigerator, the first Devil's Food Cake, Robert Mondavi's first wine, and the debut of the Swanson TV dinner. Each recipe notes the date of publication, and each section is in chronological order.
Of course, the book is only incidentally a history of cooking in this country; primarily, it is a compendium of great recipes that transcend their respective eras. From the earliest recipes submitted by housewives and sea captains to the "standards" penned by Claiborne and Bittman, The Essential 'New York Times' Cookbook is wonderfully diverse. It also faithfully reflects the ever-changing demographics of New York with recipes from literally around the world; there is not another cookbook like it. It is a fitting addition to any collection.
